Irish roof-washing gang intimidate Finnish householders

Ellis Dee

:mad:

Can there be anyone in Ireland still dumb enough to fall for those old roof painting, roof repairs, black stuff scams?:rolleyes:

Not many, certainly, but some of our enterprising citizens have been diversifying abroad. One of the latest destinations for them has been Finland.

It is a country where most people are honest and accustomed to others being honest as well. That is what makes it fair game and easy pickings for those scumbags.:mad:

Finland is a country where people generally have a positive view of Ireland and the Irish, but stories like this can easily undo all of the good that our decent citizens like Katie Taylor are doing.

This report is in today's Ilta-Lehti. I've added translations in parentheses of the bits I've underlined.

http://www.iltalehti.fi/uutiset/2012081115942565_uu.shtml


Hämäräperäiset ulkomaalaiset katonpesijät herättävät hämminkiä Länsi-Uudellamaalla.


(Shady foreign roof-washers cause dismay in West Uusimaa)


Irlantilaisten pyörittämää katonpesijöiden ryhmää epäillään asiakkaiden uhkailusta (Irish-run roof-washers group suspected of having threatened customers)



Samantyyppisiä tapauksia on ollut tänä kesänä useampia. Pahimmassa tapauksessa huolimattomasta työstä on aiheutunut vaurioita.
- Takuu päättyy, kun perävalot syttyy, toteaa rikoskomisario Minna Immonen Länsi-Uudenmaan poliisista.


(There have been several similar cases this summer. In the worst cases, the work has caused damage.


"The guarantee ends when the rear lights come on," says Detective-Superintendent Minna Immonen of the West Uusimaa police.")



Joissakin tapauksissa kunnostustyötä on kaupannut suomalainen, mutta työporukka onkin ollut ulkomaalainen. Ilmiö on tuttu viime kesiltä eri puolilta Suomea.
MTV3:n uutisten mukaan irlantilaisten pyörittämää ryhmää epäillään erään asiakkaan uhkailusta. Kun asiakas oli kieltäytynyt maksamasta puutteellisesta työstä, hänelle oli soittanut käteistä vaativa mies, joka uhkasi kavereidensa hoitavan perinnän.
- Hänen tietojensa mukaan minulla on lapsia ja omakotitalo, joille voi tapahtua jotain, asiakas sanoi MTV3:lle.
Uhkailutapaus on poliisin selvitettävänä.


(In some cases, the refurbishment work has been sold by a Finn, but the workers have been foreign. The phenomenon is familiar from various parts of Finland in earlier summers.


MTV3 news has reported that the Irish-run group is suspected of having threatened one customer. When the customer refused to pay for deficient work, he was phoned by a man demanding cash who threatened that his pals would take care of the collection.


"He knew that I have children and a single family house, to which something could happen," the customer told MTV3.);)

Diego Maradona

Thats roof

Father Damo

Travellers involved in washing?

People should know better :pac:

mike65

Ellis Dee wrote: »

Finland is a country where people generally have a positive view of Ireland and the Irish, but stories like this can easily undo all of the good that our decent citizens like Katie Taylor are doing.

WTF?

Jesus Shaves

Fûcking foreigners

IrishAm

Travellers that travel outside of the UK and Ireland. A novelty.

4zn76tysfajdxp

They've been going around in Finland for at least two years. I read a report* in a newspaper around then talking about them.



*Well... it was read to me.

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.

juan.kerr

Where does it say they are travellers?

paddy147

Its probably just Enda Kenny and Phil Hogan in disguise looking for more money out of the Finns.;):D

humbert

Ellis Dee wrote: »

but stories like this can easily undo all of the good that our decent citizens like Katie Taylor are doing.

I especially liked it when she took a weekend off from feeding African orphans to cure cancer. This Katie Taylor shit is getting out of hand.

4zn76tysfajdxp

juan.kerr wrote: »

Where does it say they are travellers?

You can't go from Ireland to Finland without travelling.

Ellis Dee

mike65 wrote: »

WTF?

If you have some difficulty understanding the sentence "Finland is a country where people generally have a positive view of Ireland and the Irish, but stories like this can easily undo all of the good that our decent citizens like Katie Taylor are doing," I'm sure I someone else will explain it to you better than I could.

What I mean is that Irish people are generally held in high regard in Finland and achievers like Katie Taylor, who also has a pleasant personality, only add to that esteem in such a sports-mad nation (which has itself had a disappointing Olympics). However, reports of Irish gangs who cheat and intimidate their customers can easily offset a lot of that.:cool:

Incidentally, there has not been any mention of the word "Traveller" by me or the Finnish police or media. However, the police say they know the identities of the members of the Irish gang.:)

Father Damo

juan.kerr wrote: »

Where does it say they are travellers?

If this is not trabeller related I will eat my own sh1te. Thee are certain crimes you can tell who has commited them from the headline.

mike65

Ellis Dee wrote: »

If you have some difficulty understanding the sentence "Finland is a country where people generally have a positive view of Ireland and the Irish, but stories like this can easily undo all of the good that our decent citizens like Katie Taylor are doing," I'm sure I someone else will explain it to you better than I could.

I had no trouble understanding your hubris, trust me.

Washington Irving

Overuse of smilies in OP

IrishAm

Is there a Finnish equivalent of Pavee Point?

testicle

juan.kerr wrote: »

Where does it say they are travellers?

Are you honestly trying to tell us it wasn't???

kraggy

mike65 wrote: »

I had no trouble understanding your hubris, trust me.

No doubt you hadn't. Given your own record of it.

An Claidheamh

Didn't travellers start a riot in Germany, maybe a year or two ago?

It was in the tabloids here anyway. They do indeed get around outside Ireland and Britain.

Richard Hillman

I hear the President of Finland has cancelled the Katie Taylor statue planned in the city centre of Helsinki

Stinicker

What are the odds these scumbags originate from Rathkeale?

Duggy747

Friend worked with travellers over in Germany a few years ago doing these sorts of jobs. They bought a squirrel (or captured it) and kept it in their apartment, letting him out whenever they left.

One day they came back and found it had drowned in the toilet.

Anyways yeah, Katie Taylor, when the boogeyman goes to bed he checks under his bed for her.

Varied

I have to laugh when you have British boards posters that jump on anything Irish and make some smart arse comment about it. Honestly just **** off to the British equivalent of boards if you're sick of hearing about all things Irish in an Irish forum.

Cee-Jay-Cee

juan.kerr wrote: »

Where does it say they are travellers?

Are you really that naive that you believe this is NOT travelers? Of course it's fricken travelers, the only good thing about this is that when they're over there scamming, thieving, robbing and intimidating, it means they're not here, which can only be good.

pontia

no good piebalds,

Pottler

How do you defectivly wash a roof? It's a roof. You wash it. It's then a clean roof. We wash roofs, even if I send the biggest gobdaw I have to go wash it, as long as he doesn't fall off, it ends up clean, it just might take longer. What are these lads doing, watering down the water they use??I'll just throw in here that we don't only wash roofs, have no piebalds and are not fond of checked shirts and hair shaved at the sides, floppy on top. Also, I've yet to see one of our vans with alloys. Also never been to Finland, just saying like.. Oh and CJC999, you've a pm coming from Whoopsie, a Travveling psychic told me. Probably:-)

looksee

Sheesh, I wouldn't let anyone onto my roof to clean it. I have enough problems with tv repair guys going up and walking on the tiles disturbing them. Why would you need to wash a roof anyway?

dirtyden

An Claidheamh wrote: »

Didn't travellers start a riot in Germany, maybe a year or two ago?

It was in the tabloids here anyway. They do indeed get around outside Ireland and Britain.

A friend of mine used live in bavaria. An irish friend of his used play music at the weekends for a number of different bars. They like traditional music in that part of germany. For a couple of months one summer he gathered a posse of irish traveller groupies almost anywhere he played. They were tarmacadding yards all over germany. Sound lads though, they offered me work if i wanted it.

charlemont

"The guarantee ends when the rear lights come on," says Detective-Superintendent Minna Immonen of the West Uusimaa police.")

Pottler

dirtyden wrote: »

A friend of mine used live in bavaria. An irish friend of his used play music at the weekends for a number of different bars. They like traditional music in that part of germany. For a couple of months one summer he gathered a posse of irish traveller groupies almost anywhere he played. They were tarmacadding yards all over germany. Sound lads though, they offered me work if i wanted it.

did it include food and lodgings?:D Or wages?

Solair

You can crack slates or tiles or puncture other surfaces, wash out sealants, damage flashing, over-clean spots with a power washer and do serious damage.

It requires the correct equipment (especially roof ladders) and a bit of knowledge of what you're doing or you can actually do serious damage to the roof.

Pottler

looksee wrote: »

Sheesh, I wouldn't let anyone onto my roof to clean it. I have enough problems with tv repair guys going up and walking on the tiles disturbing them. Why would you need to wash a roof anyway?

That's the lads in Finland probably. We use cherry pickers and never set foot on the roof. You'd wash it, funnily enough, because it was dirty.:) We do industrial ones anyway, usually before we repair it and re-line the gutters etc. If we're cleaning it, it was leaking and damaged anyway.

dirtyden

Pottler wrote: »

did it include food and lodgings?:D Or wages?

Not sure about that. I did not consider it too seriously. They seemed legit though!

Solair

Well, you don't have to wash the roof very often unless it's full of moss. Although some of those light-coloured roof materials they use in Nordic countries probably need it more often if they start to look ugly and stained.

In general, you're better off with a maintenence-free natural slate roof in northern climates.

I know a few people who have Spanish-style tiles in Ireland and they are a complete disaster.

In warmer climates, moss burns off all by itself.

Holocene

looksee wrote: »

Sheesh, I wouldn't let anyone onto my roof to clean it. I have enough problems with tv repair guys going up and walking on the tiles disturbing them. Why would you need to wash a roof anyway?

Maybe the intimidation involved goads people into hiring these roof-washers.

They're not Irish and shouldn't be referred to it.
They have no problems calling themselves an ethnic minority when it suits and refer to others as buffers.
Time they were separated from their country of origin like the Roma Gypsies.

IrishAm

gilberto_eire wrote: »

They're not Irish and shouldn't be referred to it.
They have no problems calling themselves an ethnic minority when it suits and refer to others as buffers.
Time they were separated from their country of origin like the Roma Gypsies.

They are as Irish as you or me.

seamus

looksee wrote: »

Why would you need to wash a roof anyway?

Moss and soot and ****.

There was a rogue traders episode a few years back covering it. Same deal, guy telling people that their roof was shot if they didn't clean it, then going up and taking a powerhose to it and completely wrecking the roof.

ejmaztec

Holocene wrote: »

Maybe the intimidation involved goads people into hiring these roof-washers.

Potential Finnish customer "How did all that horse-sh1t get on my roof?"

rubadubduba

them creamcrackers just dont learn. if they keep coning people like this, this will happen them.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=72126139
they will pick the wrong con someday.

ejmaztec

rubadubduba wrote: »

them creamcrackers just dont learn. if they keep coning people like this, this will happen them.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=72126139
they will pick the wrong con someday.

What, they'll get banned from AH?

Greenmachine

Finnish honesty is over-rated. Any Finns I know would state as much. Plenty of underhand stuff there. Pretty much no foreigner I know personally fits well into there nations stereotype profile.

rubadubduba

ejmaztec wrote: »

What, they'll get banned from AH?

did ya open the link and read the thread title.?

Blondini

Weirdest thread-title ever ...

ejmaztec

rubadubduba wrote: »

did ya open the link and read the thread title.?

Too lazy to scroll up after using all that energy to click on the link.

Father Damo

Greenmachine wrote: »

. Any Finns I know would state as much. . Pretty much no foreigner I know personally fits well into there nations stereotype profile.

Every Finn I ever met was slightly odd and was into god awful death metal. Unlike the rest of the world death metal is not some marginal interest genre, they are all into it.

Pottler

I've gotten banned for saying nicer things about Travvelers, mods appear to be having a moment on this thread. Anyway, what's the big deal, the customers asked John Joe are we finnished and he said yes, you're finnish, feckin pay me. Or I'll burst you.
This is like complaining that a puppy pissed on your floor. A Nomadic traders got to do what a nomadic trader got to do.

Riddle101

Roof-washing, now that's something i've never heard before. Definitely sounds shady just from reading it. Why would anyone want to clean their roof?

stuar

It's not roof washing, it's painting a rubber based load of crap on a roof and it's supposed to water proof it even more, looks crap, peels off, and the fat bastids usually break a few tiles/slates while up there.
I used to work for a conman into this and other scams, he used to have a bucket of nests and tell people they were squirrell nests and the squirrells will eat through the roof, other days I was left on roofs while the boss fcuked off home and told to bang the hammer if I saw or heard anybody, then a big bundle of cash for the scamming bastid, a little scraping off the top of the pile of notes for me.

long range shooter

Father Damo wrote: »

Every Finn I ever met was slightly odd and was into god awful death metal. Unlike the rest of the world death metal is not some marginal interest genre, they are all into it.

You havent met many Finns then i guess:rolleyes: